Primary battery



March 24, 1925. 1,530,699

J. G. ROSS ET AL PRIMARY BATTERY man- M'arch 10, 1922 I I N V EN TORS.hmes Gifiass and yartz'iz LMd'r/as B g ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 24, 1925...

UNITED STATES ,PATENT'OFFICE. f

JAMES G. ROSS, OF WATERBURY, AND MARTIN L. MARTUS, F WO O'DBURY,

CONNECTICUT.

PRIMARY BATTERY.

Application filed March 10, 1922. Serial No. 542,535.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that JAMES G. Ross and MAR- TIN L. MARTUS, citizens of theUnited States, and residents of Waterbury and Woodbury, respectively, inthe counties of New Haven and Litchfield, respectively, and State ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inPrimary Batteries, of which the following is aspccification.

Our-invention relates to primary batteries and more particularly toelectrodes for such batteries to be used in. connection with coactingelectrodes and a suitable solution.

-The invention more particularly relates to 1.5 a battery electrode soconstructed and arranged as to give advance indication to the user ofits degree ofconsumption or state of exhaustion so that he may properlyun derstand at a single glance its condition and thus know when renewalwill be required. The invention is particularly adapted to be applied topositive zinc electrodes, whether made of rolled sheet zinc, or castzinc, and may be applied to zinc of uniform thickness or those taperedfrom top tobottom as now extensively used With these and other objectsin View the invention resides and consists in the construction and novelcombination and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described,illustratedin the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claimshere to appended, it being understood that various changes in the form,proportion, size and minor details of construction within the scope ofthe claims may be resorted to with .out departure from the spirit orsacrificing any of the advantages of the invention;

Similar characters of reference denote like or corresponding partsthroughout the several figures of theaccompanying drawings forming apart of this specification, and upon which,

Fig. 1 shows a side elevation of a cylindri cal form of assembledbattery elements, the

outer zincyelement of which is constructed in accordance with thefeatures of our. in-' vention; y

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged cross section of a portion of the ositive andnegative electrodes shown in ig. 1 with a series of lines extending fromone to the other to indicate the electrolyticaction as between the two;

Fig. 3is' a side elevation of aplate form number ofhours of use whilethe tion of the third and widest bridge would of zinc or positiveelectrode, showing the ap- 5 plication of the invention to this styleofelement; and

Fig. 4 shows a modificationas applied. to a cylindrical form of sheetzinc electrode wherein one of the vertical edges of the element'form oneof the edges of the bridge. In Fig. 1 of this drawing 5 represents ahanger by means of whichthe assembled ele- 'ment is suspended from thecover of a ar,

not shown,.6 represents a porcelain insulator against which the outerpositive electrode 7, the inner positive electrode 8 and the. negativeelectrode 9 are supported by means of the tie rods 10.

The invention is particularly applicable,

.aswill be noted, to the outer zinc electrode of a battery as indicatedby 7 in the draw I ing, and specifically resides in the formation of aserles of two or more holes or perforations in thewall of thiselectrode, 111 spaced relation one to the other and in a manner to formabodyor bridge portion in the sideof the zinc, of a specified area anddesignating a definite amount of material to be acted I 'upon by "theelectrolyte and co-acting electrode. 1

The amount of metal as included in this bridge portion and asrepresented by the 1 combined thickness of the plate and the breadth ofthe face of the bridge, is, accord 85. ing to our invention, necessarilyaproper amount to designate a definite length of use of the element, inthat'by the continued use for a specified number of hours,saidbridge-port1on becomes eaten away and destroyed,

leaving a single opening, whereas if made wider so as to comprise alargebulk of material a greater number of hours use is necessary in order toconsume the metal compris 7 ing the said bridge portion between the saidopenin s. In this latter instance, this great ernum er of hours of usewould indicate a further consumption of the battery with a lesser hoursof use in prospect. v i

In case several indications for different periods'of consumption arerequired we provide a series of holes between whichdiffer'ent widths andamounts of material are left to form bridges of difi'erent sizes. Withthis form of construction the smallest bridge will first be consumed,and indicate a limited consumptioned between the holes B and G is someWhat wider than that indicated by a. The bridge 0 is considerably widerthan that indicated by 5 though its thickness would be the same as boththat ota and Z). The openings A, B, C and D are all or" substantiallythe same size and are obviously made to form the destructible bridgeportions (4, b and a before referred to. i

The more popular size of this type of battery, as employed for railroadsignal work, is designed to give as a minimum 450 ainpere hour service.This may extend over a relatively long or short period of time accordingto the amount of use to which the battery is subjected. i

It will also be understood that this standard of capacity is obtained bythe use of a proper and relative amounts of the two ma terials employedin the formation of the positive and negative electrodes, such forinstance as zinc and oxide of copper; The Specified amount of the oxideof "copper when employed in a battery including zinc as a positiveelement, can consume only a relative amount of zinc and therefore thezinc elements and copper elements are made as of certain sizes so as toavoid waste of material and insure definite results, It will thereforebe further understood that'a bar of zinc oi": specified dimensions whenem- ;ployed in position in a battery opposite a negative electrode willlast for a specified ampere hour service and may atall times be dependedupon to give like results. Consequ'ently it'will be seen that byproportioning the different width of material employed in the bridges a,'Z) and 0 of the Zinc they may be relied upon to withstand a definiteamount of service and that as destroyed =or-consumed will indicate thephysical'condition of the battery. In the drawings we have representedbars'of different thickness each designed to withstand a differentamount of "service as for instance a :as between holes A andB will beconsiirned in 250 ampere hour service of the batter", which to theobserver will indicate that the battery was about one-half exhausted,whereas the consumption of the second barb is =so.proportioned as to"last for a 375 ampere hour service while the third bar whichsubstantially twice the width of the first 'w-ba r. is designed to standup for 450 hours.

With the consumption *offthe *three ba-rs 'as,

positioned there will obviously be left one large opening which when itappears would indicate that the useful life of the battery waspractically gone.

In Fig. 4 we have shown our invention as applied to -a commercial formof rolledsheet "zinc 7 whose vertical spaced apart edges are disposedsubstantially parallel and adjacent to each other. The holes A, B and Care arranged adjacent to one of these vertical edges and each at adifferent distance therefrom forming veriable, thickness of bridges a, band 0 whereby the action of the element will have the same effect as inthe other figures, namely to first eat away the smaller bridge a andthen "the next bridge 5 and so on forming a resultant enlargementadjacent to the edge rather than between the holes.

This invention is applicable to any and all forms of zinc electrodes forprimary bat-- teries, without respect to whether they are in plate orcylinder form and may thus be included in any shape, form or design ofelectrode required to obtain the desired result. The features of thisinvention can also be applied to any positivee'le'ctrode, the materialof which is adapted to disintegrate, eat away or decompose during theaction of the. cell.

We do not therefore w i'sh to confine ourselves to the use of zincelectrodes for the actioh and results obtained wouldbe the same on otherpositive electrodes which disintegrate, eat away, or decompose duringthe action of the cell. I I

Having thus described our invention, what we claim .and desire to secureby Letters 'Patentis: p, a a

1. In a primary battery, a positive element having apertures thereinforming a bridge portifon said bridge portion being adapted to be actedupon and consumed through theuse of the battery so that the width of"the bridge indicates the "efiective life oftli'oba ttery.

2. In a primary battery, a positive electrode having apertures thereinforming a the amount of battery energy I available, at

any time "during the life of th'ejbattery.

4i. Ina primarybattery a positive element having a series of holestherethrough, and

intermediate zinc bridg'e portions of specific and different widths"designed to be 'consumed at di'fi'eren't periods in the use of thebattery to indicate b the thickness of's'aid bridge 'portio'n itscondition at all times'durof negative and positive elements, thepositive element having holes therethrough embodying a bridge portion,apertures adjacent thereto, said bridge portion being adapted to beacted upon electrolytically indicating from time to time the extent ofbattery exhaustion.

'7. In a primary battery, a positive element having two or more holestherethrough and bridge port-ion intermediate the said holes,

the walls of said bridge being transverse to the face of said elementand designed to be consumed in a specified ampere hour use of thebattery to indicate by the thickness of said bridge portion itscondition at all times during its life.

8. In a primary battery, the combination of a negative and positiveelement, the positive element having an aperture there? tl'irough andportionscalibrated for width, said aperture forming said portions of theelectrode calibrated for width, which por tions are adapted to be actedupon during the consumption of the battery to indicate the extent ofbattery exhaustion. t

9. In a primary battery, a positive element having a hole formedtherein, the walls of which are transverse to theface of said element,whereby the decomposition of the portion surrounding said hole isintensified i to indicate by the width of said hole the state ofexhaustion of the element at all times during its life.

10; In a primary battery, a positive elev ment having a portion providedwith spaced side walls transverse to the face ofthe element, to indicateby the width of'said portion the state of exhaustion of the element atall timesduringits life.

Signed at Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State ofConnecticut, this 2nd day of March A. 1)., 1922.

JAMES G. ROSS.

t MARTIN L. MARTUS.

Witnesses HARRY T. I-IUBERT, PAUL F. SUHOEUMEHL.

